Path of Exile Currency Guide 2: Chaos and Exalted Orbs

Rare is perhaps the gear tier that most players rely on. It’s not as difficult to obtain as Unique items, and they have much better stats than Magic items. Still, they’re not perfect. Then again, in a dungeon crawler where gear drops and their stats are at random, nothing is. Thankfully, there are ways to make a less-than-ideal piece of rare equipment better, which are Chaos Orbs and Exalted Orbs. All right, let’s cut to the chase and get down with this Path of Exile Currency Guide.

Going for Rare Items

What sets Rare items apart from Magic ones, apart from the better base stats, is the number of affixes it can have. Unlike the latter, Rare items can have up to six affixes: three prefixes and three suffixes.

However, Rare gear doesn’t naturally come with six modifiers. Instead, gears that get an upgrade to Rare with the Regal Orb, which turns a Magic item to Rare, will have two to three modifiers. On the other hand, a Rare item gained with the Orb of Chance that upgrades a Normal item to random rarity, including Rare, and Orb of Alchemy, which enhances Normal gear to a Rare one, both have four modifiers.

Chaos Orb: Effect and Purpose

Rare gear can then fill up the six modifiers with Exalted Orbs, which add a random affix to Rare items. Meanwhile, Chaos Orbs reroll a Rare item’s modifiers. These two orbs, when used wisely, can make a Rare item significantly better.

There is the Chaos Orb that’s useful for a Rare item you’d find helpful but has undesirable modifiers. You can change the affixes until they become suited for your build. Yes, over and over again since the result will be random. Aside from randomizing the affixes, the number of affixes is also randomized, so it’s not recommended to use Chaos Orbs after using an Exalted Orb unless you want to reroll on purpose.

Using Your Exalted Orbs Right

Meanwhile, you should use Exalted Orbs on your Rare item that has less than six affixes. You can use it directly, but the affix your gear will receive is at random, so hopefully, it adds a modifier that’s helpful to your build. If not, then you’ll have to deal with it, otherwise, if you don’t mind playing another game of chance, reroll with a Chaos Orb.

Now, if you’re not the type to take chances, you can choose to use your Exalted Orbs in Mastercrafting. This means having one of the forsaken masters put a signature modifier on an item. It’s a special kind of modifier called a meta-crafting modifier, which affects how modifiers behave. A Rare item Mastercrafted by Elreon can have the meta-crafting modifier (“Can Have Multiple Crafted Mods”) allowing it to have more than one crafted mod for the price of two Exalted Orbs. Now, that’s a bargain!

Lastly, if you think you can’t use Chaos Orbs and Exalted Orbs for crafting, you can use them as currencies instead, which is how the player base mostly sees them. Chaos Orbs are useful for buying low to mid-tier items, while Exalted Orbs are for more sought-after ones. However, if you think that using them would help you get better gear instead of selling them and buying another piece of gear, it’s better to use them rather than sell.

Don’t let your rare equipment be mediocre. Make the best use of your orbs! Trust us, and you’ll thank us for it.